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I am sure that by now you’ve heard the term “STEM” at least a few times. If you are a parent, you know that it is all the rage right now in education! If you haven’t heard of it or just were too afraid to ask what it meant, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The truth is that STEM is not just a trend that will go away. The demand for people with STEM skills is continually rising. Our digital world is becoming more digital. The need for people who can solve problems and think innovatively is growing. There are a lot of easy STEM activities for your preschooler that you can start implementing to get your kids’ brains working and learning.
Why STEM
Some people might think, “Isn’t it too early to push Science on my kid? I should just let them play!” Well here’s the thing about STEM… Your child is a NATURAL born engineer and Scientist. STEM is perfect for the way that toddlers and preschoolers WANT to learn.
Think about how your toddler plays. The probably love dropping things off tables, throwing things in the air to see where they land, beating on pots to hear the noise, and turning the light switch off and on… and off and on.
Sometimes your kid makes science without even knowing! 🤣 Check out Harper’s static electricity experience!
Source: Inflatable toy causes chaos for baby’s hair by purposefulmommyblog
Your kid isn’t just being a turd. They’re experimenting! Little ones are fascinated with how the world works and figuring it out. Why does the light turn on when I flip the switch? What happens when I throw something down the stairs? What noise will this make? Your child’s mind is filled with what ifs, whys, and hows!
One thing we, as parents, unwittingly do is squash these curiosities and STEM minds. We tell them to be quiet, stop touching, stop throwing, etc… Now, I’m a big advocate for teaching your child appropriate behavior, don’t get me wrong, but I also think that children need an outlet to explore so that they can develop these skills.
Is STEM really for everyone?
The answer to this is simply, yes. EVERYONE benefits from having problem-solving skills and an ability to think more deeply. Regardless of whether your child grows up to be an engineer or coder, these skills will help them wherever they go!
STEM activities all serve a purpose of allowing one to look at different problems and learning how to solve them or looking at a situation and finding out how it works.
Sign up for Amazon’s Stem Club for ages 3-4 and get STEM toys sent monthly or every 2-3 months
I currently am the STEM teacher for K-6 at my school and ALL of our units revolve around either the Engineering Design Process (Ask, Explore, Model, Evaluate, Explain) or the Scientific Inquiry Process (Ask, Predict, Investigate, Observe, Explain). The students are learning how to use step by step methods to solve a problem.
Think about your work. You might not be a programmer or engineer, but have you had to solve a problem before? Did you need to find what works best through trial and error? Did it take more than a few tries? Well, then you probably used the design process without even realizing it. The skills learned through STEM activities benefit your child’s learning in ALL areas.
STEM Activities for Your Preschooler
There are a lot of ways that you can create STEM activities for your preschooler! There are a million premade kits, toys, and lesson plans all over the internet but sometimes STEM can happen on the fly!
Some of the activities listed are a sampling of what’s included in my “100 Activities for a Rainy Day” download. To get the full list, CLICK HERE!
Build a House
After reading the 3 Little Pigs (or for a fun twist try The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! By Jon Scieszka), have some fun building different houses! Use a blow dryer to try to blow them down!
Try using popsicle sticks, uncooked spaghetti, play-doh, and any other materials you can think of! If the blow dryer breaks the house, encourage your child to make changes to their houes to make it stronger.
Marble Run
I LOVE marble runs (I mean, who doesn’t?). We have had a magnetic one that is so fun! We can make different tracks on our refrigerator and see how the marble goes! It takes a couple of tries for the marble to make it to its little container, but that’s the point!
When I was a kid I had a friend that had a HUGE kit like this one and we played with it for hours!
Make a Boat
A classic, but still fun. Give your child different materials that they can use to make a boat. Tell them that the pennies (or whatever small items you want to use) need to be able to float across the lake (the container of water you filled). Watching your kid try and fail, then try again can be so fun. When they get it to hold the penny (then more pennies) they get so excited!
For younger kids, you can limit the materials and focus on what shapes will work. You might just give them aluminum foil and allow them to shape it until it floats. Then add the penny to see if it can hold weight.
For older or more advanced kids you could give them different materials to try. Let them discover which materials are better to use in the water and why. Don’t be afraid to give them some that won’t work. It is part of the discovery process.
Some materials that you can make available to them: glue, tape, aluminum foil, craft sticks, cardboard, ziploc bags.
Some of the activities listed are a sampling of what’s included in my “100 Activities for a Rainy Day” download. To get the full list, CLICK HERE!
Learn about sound
This is a favorite for preschoolers! They love making noise! With their mouths, with their toys, with the dishes… It doesn’t matter; if they can make noise with it, they will make noise with it! For preschoolers, simply trying out different noise making materials is discovery. They will start to make conclusions about how sound works based on their experiences. Encourage them to hit things softly, then hit it hard! Play with rubber bands and string. What happens if it’s loose? Tap glasses with different levels of water.
With older kids, you can extend and actually make instruments. Have your child take what they learned by experimenting to create their own instrument (transitioning from inquiry to design).
Coding!
I LOVE coding with kids. There are SO MANY amazing products out there that encourage coding skills. Don’t just think that that means on a computer or tablet. There are board games, homemade activities, and toys that all encourage children to start thinking like a coder. In the preschool stage, this means understanding that a set of steps can lead to a set of actions.
A simple and homemade way to practice coding is to make a set of arrow cards. Then make a maze with tape that they have to solve with the directional cards. Have your child follow the directions in order. After your child understands how it works, take turns being the “robot” that has to go through the maze and being the “operator” who lays down the instructions.
Here is a product that you can buy that uses this concept that looks like a lot of fun!
Code.org is a great free resource to get students ready for coding. We use it at my school and the kids love it! My son has practiced using the mouse and dragging and dropping on their course made for little ones.
Another great coding resource to check out is Code Academy! This has been a favorite in our house since we found it! Similar to Code.org, kids follow a course to help them learn some of the basics skills required for coding such as sequencing. I love the format of this app because kids think it’s just a game.
New 14 day free trial of codeSpark
Almost every activity can become a STEM activity if you allow your child to experiment, design, explore, and solve problems using an engineering mindset. There are also so many great resources out there! Check out some of these awesome STEM toys for all ages!
Shop STEM Activities by AGE HERE
You can find these activities and many more in my list of “100 Indoor Activities for a Rainy Day! Get your copy below!
These are such fun ideas!!! I can’t wait to modify them a little to play with my baby and pin to keep in mind as he gets older. Thanks so much for sharing!
I’m so glad you liked it! They are a lot of fun and adaptable for many ages.
Such great ideas to keep kids busy! I love watching mine get better at new skills and feed their curiosity.
That is really one of my favorite things, watching my kids learn!
These are great STEM ideas (only I am afraid I would have to play with the toys first before I show them to my kids to get it out of my system, so then I could actually share and let my kids have a turn!) I love the idea of the magnetic marble run because it doesn’t take up very much room in a small home but offers a large interactive playing field.
Yes! That is really nice about it. You can see in our picture our kids play with it in the kitchen on the refrigerator 😛 Keeps them out of the way for the most part, except the marble runs off a lot! LOL
I’ve heard of STEM but I never knew anything about it until your post and I’m so glad I read this! My little one is only a toddler but I can definitely see how she plays and it totally looks like she is experimenting- I never thought of it that way. I can’t wait to use these activities as she gets older and watch her grow and learn!
I am so glad you liked my post! I plan on writing a lot more about STEM activities as well as just great things to do with your kids! If you haven’t already, don’t forget to go get my list of 100 Activities to do with your kids! It has a lot of ideas that are meant to encourage your kids to think like this as well!
My favorite part of parenting is watching my kids learn and grow through their play!
These are amazing ideas! I am so trying the building a house one. That one sounds so fun!
It is so much fun! And they usually don’t get it on the first try so it’s a great activity to introduce the design process of testing and fixing. STEM is great for teaching persistence!
These are so creative and fun! I honestly can’t wait to try them with our 3yo. He’s been experiencing some cabin fever with the cold weather, so activities are a good way to keep him busy and out of trouble!
I’m so glad you liked them! These are perfect for days stuck inside!
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